Severe Allergies, Price Increases, and Supply Shortages

Abstract

Controlling pharmaceutical prescription costs has been an interest in the United States for decades. In 2016, EpiPen experienced a 600% price increase. This exploratory framing study focuses on news coverage of EpiPen’s price increase and related pharmaceutical price increase stories through analyzing three U.S. television news programs’ coverage. Within 30 news segments that discussed EpiPen or medication price increases, analysis revealed four frames: economic, attribution of responsibility, morality and human interest, and conflict and powerlessness. This study provides a larger understanding of how the crisis of medication price increases is understood and implications for practitioners and individuals aiming to make medications more accessible.